Azerbaijan GP: Hamilton Scores 66th F1 Career Pole

Hamilton has grabbed his 66th F1 pole today at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2017 in Baku. He now sits behind Michael Schumacher in second place, Schumi has 68 pole wins. The Brit topped all three qualifying sessions, and teammate Bottas helped seal a 1-2 finish for Mercedes. Third place on the grid went to Raikkonen, sharing the second row with teammate Vettel for Ferrari.

Qualifying for the Azerbaijan GP 2017 kicked off with everyone opting for supersofts. Vettel had a precautionary engine change prior to the session, he incurred no grid penalty. Magnussen set the clock rolling with a 1m46.183s which was trimmed down by Stroll with a 1m44.944s.

Verstappen followed with a faster lap before Sainz spun off at turn 2. Perez and Raikkonen then exchanged fastest times before Verstappen reclaimed the top spot, Hamilton however went even faster with a 1m42.384s.

Q2 started with Raikkonen going fastest before Massa beat him to the clock, Bottas and Hamilton then did a fastest lap each with the Brit coming on top after a 1m41.992s lap. And supersofts were the tires of choice in Q2 as well.

#Supersoft tyres for everyone in #Q2. They are about a second faster than the soft compound.

After the chequered flag in Q2, those eliminated were Kvyat, Sainz, Magnussen, Hulkenberg and Wehrlein. Proceeding to Q3 were Hamilton, Bottas, Ricciardo, Verstappen, Vettel, Raikkonen, Perez, Ocon, Massa and Stroll.

Bottas led the pack in Q3 followed by Ricciardo and Hamilton. Bottas put down a 1m47.201s lap which was slower that the average from previous sessions. Ricciardo was then advised to keep warming his front tires. Vettel went fastest with a 1m43.194s lap, but it was toppled by both Verstappen and Bottas. Hamilton set the second fastest time behind Bottas with a 1m41.428s lap.

Hamilton was making his way into the track again, when the red flag flew. It was caused by Ricciardo whose car stopped with the left rear tire hanging off. He drifted hard coming out of turn six before the incident.

Red flag! So that means that we’ll have a sprint finish to #Q3, with tyres cooling down. Have we seen pole already?

“Max, if you get challenged by a car on the out-lap trying to get past you, switch into ‘mode 8’, that’ll be fine,” Verstappen was told as Q3 got back underway. Indeed the Dutchman was so fast that he managed two flying laps.

While Verstappen failed to improve on his time, Bottas went even faster with a 1m41.027s, but it was Hamilton who took the top spot after a 1m40.593s lap. This was the 66th pole for Hamilton.